Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
The Fillmore City Council voted Tuesday night to reaffirm its ban on marijuana businesses, disrupting the plans of a medical marijuana collective that had hoped to build an indoor farm in the city.
Coast To Coast Collective, a medical marijuana dispensary in Canoga Park, is in escrow on a 25-acre property in the area zoned as Fillmore's new business park, said the collective's CEO, Chris Malcolm. If the council had decided to allow medical marijuana cultivation, Coast To Coast had planned to build a warehouse there to grow medical marijuana.
Mike Marinelli, whose family owns the business park property, said he had "no earthly idea" whether the sale would fall through, now that Coast To Coast's business won't be allowed there.
Malcolm said immediately after the council vote that he hadn't decided yet what to do about the Fillmore property.
"I'm not going to make a knee-jerk decision on it," he said, adding that he's been talking to other cities that are friendlier to medical marijuana growers, including Port Hueneme.
Under Proposition 64, which legalized recreational marijuana in California last year, any adult California resident can grow and possess small quantities of marijuana for their own use. Cities and counties can ban or regulate commercial-scale cultivation and sale of both medical and recreational marijuana.
The Fillmore City Council put its current ban on all commercial marijuana activity into place in early 2016. But it left the door open to relaxing it at some point, and last year it put two ballot measures before the voters setting maximum tax rates for legal marijuana. Both of them passed.
The topic has been the hottest button in Fillmore politics for the past two years. About 150 people attended Tuesday night's council meeting; turnout was about the same for a "listening workshop" on the topic in June. The majority of the people at Tuesday's meeting – and the majority who have attended every time marijuana is on the agenda – was against allowing indoor grow operations or any other marijuana business in Fillmore.
The City Council was considering allowing cultivation only for licensed medical marijuana growers, not sales of any sort or cultivation of recreational marijuana. The council voted 4-1 to keep the ban intact and not allow medical grow operations like the one proposed by Coast To Coast. Councilman Manny Minjares cast the dissenting vote.
City Manager David Rowlands had recommended allowing medical marijuana cultivation. A small facility of about 5,700 square feet would provide the equivalent of around 20 full-time equivalent jobs, and a larger facility of around 30,000 square feet would provide 42 full-time equivalent jobs, he said. The city's tax revenue could eventually reach $5 million a year from a small number of commercial grow houses, Rowlands said.
"This is an item that needs to be regulated, it needs to be taxed, it needs to be taken under control," he said.
But the four council members who voted to keep the ban said they didn't think a marijuana business – even one that doesn't sell to the public in Fillmore – would be in keeping with the town's character.
"I believe that medical marijuana has a place," Councilwoman Diane McCall said. "But what our decision boils down to is, do we need to rest that need on the back of our community that we call home, and bring it here so we can grow it here and distribute it from here? ... I don't think we're there yet. I think in two years or 10 years we might be there, but I think there's a lot of unanswered questions."
In casting his dissenting vote, Minjares said he was also worried that greater acceptance of marijuana would "alter the cultural fabric" of Fillmore. But marijuana is already prevalent in Fillmore, he said, citing an unlicensed outdoor pot farm just outside of the city limits that was raided by police last year.
"The war on drugs didn't work," Minjares said. "It's not going to stop individuals' usage of the plant, so I think we need to do something different."
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Fillmore says no to all types of marijuana businesses
Author: Tony Biasotti
Contact: Contact Us | Ventura County Star
Photo Credit: iStock
Website: Ventura - Home
Coast To Coast Collective, a medical marijuana dispensary in Canoga Park, is in escrow on a 25-acre property in the area zoned as Fillmore's new business park, said the collective's CEO, Chris Malcolm. If the council had decided to allow medical marijuana cultivation, Coast To Coast had planned to build a warehouse there to grow medical marijuana.
Mike Marinelli, whose family owns the business park property, said he had "no earthly idea" whether the sale would fall through, now that Coast To Coast's business won't be allowed there.
Malcolm said immediately after the council vote that he hadn't decided yet what to do about the Fillmore property.
"I'm not going to make a knee-jerk decision on it," he said, adding that he's been talking to other cities that are friendlier to medical marijuana growers, including Port Hueneme.
Under Proposition 64, which legalized recreational marijuana in California last year, any adult California resident can grow and possess small quantities of marijuana for their own use. Cities and counties can ban or regulate commercial-scale cultivation and sale of both medical and recreational marijuana.
The Fillmore City Council put its current ban on all commercial marijuana activity into place in early 2016. But it left the door open to relaxing it at some point, and last year it put two ballot measures before the voters setting maximum tax rates for legal marijuana. Both of them passed.
The topic has been the hottest button in Fillmore politics for the past two years. About 150 people attended Tuesday night's council meeting; turnout was about the same for a "listening workshop" on the topic in June. The majority of the people at Tuesday's meeting – and the majority who have attended every time marijuana is on the agenda – was against allowing indoor grow operations or any other marijuana business in Fillmore.
The City Council was considering allowing cultivation only for licensed medical marijuana growers, not sales of any sort or cultivation of recreational marijuana. The council voted 4-1 to keep the ban intact and not allow medical grow operations like the one proposed by Coast To Coast. Councilman Manny Minjares cast the dissenting vote.
City Manager David Rowlands had recommended allowing medical marijuana cultivation. A small facility of about 5,700 square feet would provide the equivalent of around 20 full-time equivalent jobs, and a larger facility of around 30,000 square feet would provide 42 full-time equivalent jobs, he said. The city's tax revenue could eventually reach $5 million a year from a small number of commercial grow houses, Rowlands said.
"This is an item that needs to be regulated, it needs to be taxed, it needs to be taken under control," he said.
But the four council members who voted to keep the ban said they didn't think a marijuana business – even one that doesn't sell to the public in Fillmore – would be in keeping with the town's character.
"I believe that medical marijuana has a place," Councilwoman Diane McCall said. "But what our decision boils down to is, do we need to rest that need on the back of our community that we call home, and bring it here so we can grow it here and distribute it from here? ... I don't think we're there yet. I think in two years or 10 years we might be there, but I think there's a lot of unanswered questions."
In casting his dissenting vote, Minjares said he was also worried that greater acceptance of marijuana would "alter the cultural fabric" of Fillmore. But marijuana is already prevalent in Fillmore, he said, citing an unlicensed outdoor pot farm just outside of the city limits that was raided by police last year.
"The war on drugs didn't work," Minjares said. "It's not going to stop individuals' usage of the plant, so I think we need to do something different."
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Fillmore says no to all types of marijuana businesses
Author: Tony Biasotti
Contact: Contact Us | Ventura County Star
Photo Credit: iStock
Website: Ventura - Home
